Familiar
by karovie
Summary: It's Cas' first hunt as a human. The hunt for the witch doesn't go as planned, and Cas ends up missing. He returns back at the motel a while later, but he's changed. a lot. in their attempt at turning Cas back to normal, they stumble upon a strange case involving insanity and a creature named Kapre. A certain someone turns Cas back, only for a gigantic disaster to follow.
1. Chapter 1

"You think you're ready for this, Cas?" Dean hands Cas the gun he took from the Impala's trunk. "Withces are tricky sons of bitches, so watch your back." He adds, looking Castiel in the eyes. The man seems somewhat nervous before his first hunt as a human. He has been in training for weeks, learning how to protect himself without the Angel powers.

"I am ready." Castiel says, clutching the gun in his hands. He looks past Dean, onto the small hut in the middle of the huge property filled with tall grass. There is a distinct trail where someone has been walking in and out of the property several times.

Sam comes around the car to stand by his brother's side. "This fucker is most likely on the inside, but we need to check the outside as well, just to be sure. Cas, you wanna search around the hut?" Dean asks, pulling out his own gun. Castiel nods. "ok, good. Me and Sam will take the inside then. You know what to do if you need us." He places his hand on Cas' shoulder and drags him in for a brief kiss, before all three walk toward the hut.

Sam picks the lock, the door slides open silently. Dean sneaks inside with his brother close behind. Castiel watches them until they're inside before he walks quietly around to the back of the hut.

He startles when he comes across a cloaked man with his back to him. He seems to be looking at the skies. Castiel aims the gun at the man and is about to say something, when the man turns around very fast. Castiel fires in panic, missing the man completely as he comes up with two fingers to Castiel's forehead. Castiel just manages to catch a glimpse of the somewhat panicked golden eyes of the man before he sinks unconsciously to the ground, his gun slipping from his hands.

Just a few seconds later, Dean comes running from one side, while Sam comes from the other. They look frantically around, seeing no one. "Cas?!" Dean shouts, spinning on the spot, trying to catch a glimpse of anything that could be Cas.

"Dean! Something went down here." Sam is crouching near the wall of the hut. Dean hurries over, seeing the gun he'd handed Castiel just a few minutes earlier. They can clearly see footprints, and it looks like someone has been laying on the ground, but there's no blood.

"Damn it! We should have sticked together!" Dean growls. He looks at the grass, trying to see if there's any sign of someone walking through it. There's no trail, however, he sees something big and tan in the tall grass a few feet from them. "Sam? There's something in the grass over there. I'm taking a look."

Sam stands, looking in the direction Dean walks in. Dean walks slowly, prepared for anything. He thinks.

He stops abruptly, staring in disbelief at the thing in front of him. "It's a fucking horse!" Dean shouts back at Sam. Sam jogs over, wanting to see for himself. It is laying lifelessly on the ground. It's tan coloured, like the trench coat Castiel was wearing. It has a black mane and tail, black stockings on each leg, it's muzzle is black and it's black around it's eyes.

"Is it dead?" Sam asks, staring down at the big creature.

"I don't know." Dean pokes the horse carefully. No reaction. "I think it might be. Damn shame though." He pokes it again. "Whatever, we need to find Cas." He says, loosing interest in the horse.

"I'm guessing the witch has something to do with his disappearance. I think the best thing to do is getting back to the motel and search for signs." Sam suggests.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Castiel wakes up, the light is fading, and he thinks it strange that he's laying in the grass. He lifts his head a bit, looking around him. He's alone. He tries getting to his feet, but his body feels strange. Hair suddenly obscures his eyes. He lifts his hand to brush it away, but he can't reach.

With panic building in his chest, he looks down at his body. "This can not be happening! This can _not_ be happening!" He thinks to himself, staring at his... hooves. He realises his vision is strange too, seeing to either side, but having a blind spot straight in front of him. He turns his head to look down the rest of the body. "A horse! I am a horse! How did this happen?" He thinks, trying to call for help only for it to come out as a low neigh.

Deciding there's nothing else to do, he struggles to get to his feet like a newborn foal. When he finally is on his feet, he finds it fairly easy to navigate with his four legs. He looks around the property to make sure Sam and Dean isn't there, before he starts walking back to the motel.

He makes sure not to walk too close to the road, in case someone decided to take him to a shelter or something like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam searches the internet and calls other hunters, trying to find anything connected to the witch. Or something that could tell them where Castiel was. He has been working on it for hours without any luck.

Dean on the other hand has been out driving, looking for the ex-Angel. It's evening when he stumbles tiredly through the door, handing his brother a greasy paper bag. He collapses on the bed with a huff.

"No sign of him?" Sam guesses. He's starting to get worried. Castiel is human after all. He can't just fly off and come back to them. Besides, they have no idea what the other Angels would do if they found him first.

Dean sits up on the bed, looking defeated. It had been almost two years since the last time Castiel was taken from them on a hunt. It was terrible memories, but he also had some pretty awesome ones from that time too. Dean and Cas had been together since then. Sam had kept one of Castiel's feathers from back then, and given it to Dean after. Said feather was now in his hands.

"No... I don't understand where he could be!" Dean sighs, looking at the black feather in his hands.

They both jump at the loud banging noise suddenly coming from the door. It sounds like someone is pounding on it with something made of stone or hard wood. Dean leaves the feather on the bed, grabbing his gun, slowly walking to the door. Sam stands ready with his own gun.

Dean's hand wrap slowly around the handle, opening the door as slow as possible, looking through the crack.

He screams at the loud snorting noise coming from something black that's up in his face as soon as the door opens. "What the hell!" he yells, his voice cracking slightly as he jumps back, aiming at the thing in the wide open door. It takes him a moment to realise just what the thing is.

Sam bursts into laughter when he sees the horse sticking it's head in the doorway. It's huge, and it has decided to come into their motel room. It's halfway into the room when Dean suddenly snaps back to reality and tries shooing it out again. It simply stops dead, planting it's hooves in the floor, refusing to get out. It nudges it's head at Dean, tilting it's head slightly to the side better to look Dean in the eyes.

"Holy shit..." Dean says when he sees it's eyes. There's only one other creature with such blue eyes. He stares into the deep ocean of blue that reminds him so much of Castiel. It nudges it's muzzle against Dean's cheek.

"Dean! That's the horse from outside the hut!" Sam suddenly realises and he too freezes up a bit when he sees the horse's eyes.

The horse turns to Sam, it's ears pointing in his direction. It neighs softly, looking somewhat sad. It turns back to Dean again, but catches a glimpse of the feather on Dean's bed. It steps forwards, catching it between it's lips, holding it up in front of Dean.

Dean panics, grabbing for the feather. "Give it back you shit!" he shouts, scared that the horse will destroy it. He gets hold of it, and the horse lets it go, it's ears dropping a bit, making it look sadder than before. It tries to nudge it's muzzle against Dean once more, but he steps back, looking mad at the horse. "Get the hell out of here!" he shouts.

The horse looks pleadingly at him, then at Sam. It seems to realise something, drops it's head low, backing out the door. Once outside, it stops, looking at them again. Dean slams the door on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castiel stands outside the door feeling like the world is crashing in on him. His only hope was the Winchester brothers, and they didn't recognise him. Dean. The one he has been standing side by side with for years. _His_ Dean, didn't recognise him.

He stands there. Lost. Until he decides he will not give up. So what if he's a horse. He'll still be protecting the brothers. He looks around for a place to rest, and decides it'll be best to hide between the trees on the other side of the parking lot.

He finds a comfortable spot where he clumsily lies down, attempting to sleep. It takes a while, but the slumber finally gets him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean wakes up before Sam and decides to go out and get some breakfast for the two of them. He pulls on the jeans from yesterday, and a random T-shirt from his duffle. When in the bathroom, he realises it's one of the T-shirts he'd given to Castiel. For a few minutes he just stands there, staring at the shirt.

He pulls on his boots, grabs the keys to the Impala, gets out the door and is about to close it when he sees the horse. He jumps backwards with a yelp, hurries back inside and slams the door shut, leaning against it.

Sam jumps out of bed with the gun ready, staring at his brother. "Dean, what is it?" He asks on edge. It has to be something bad if it scared his brother like that.

"The fucking horse is back!" Dean whispers, staring at his brother like it was the devil himself standing on the outside. "It's standing by the car, blocking her!" he hisses.

Sam relaxes, goes over to the window and looks through the curtains. He has to laugh. The horse looks like it's deliberately hindering them from leaving, staring almost madly at the door to their room. "Seems like it likes you very much" he chuckles while going back to his duffle by the bed, dragging on his clothes.

"This is not funny, Sam! We're supposed to find Cas, not be harassed by a stubborn horse!" the man shouts. "Help me get rid of it!"

"I'm starting to wonder if you're afraid of horses." Sam teases.

"Have you _seen_ the size of that thing?! It's the biggest fucking horse I've ever seen! And did you _see _those muscles? Trust me when I tell you that isn't a normal horse!" Dean hisses at his brother.

Sam shakes his head, but follows his brother out the door. He must admit he thinks the horse is strange, and Dean's right when it comes to the size of it. And right now, it is staring them down with it's intense blue gaze.

"Shoo! Get away from my car, you beast!" Dean shouts at it. In an instant, the horse turns furious. It's ears lays flat against it's head which it lifts up to look bigger, and it stomps one of it's front hooves. It also lets out something sounding like a low growl. It whips it's tail irritatingly, levelling Dean with the most hateful stare to ever have been seen on a horse. As if to make a point, the horse backs closer to the car, placing it's tail on the trunk of it.

"I think you pissed it off" Sam chuckles. "Hang in there Dean, I think I have an idea." He jogs off around the building.

Dean stands there, staring back at the horse. It still looks damn pissed off as it watches his every move. It also looks terribly sad.

The horse lowers it's head, neighing weakly. It takes a few steps towards Dean, reaching out it's head towards him, but Dean steps back. The horse closes it's eyes, hanging it's head.

Sam comes back around with two buckets. One filled with water, which he places by the wall of the motel, the other one filled with newly plucked apples and some carrots. "They had apple trees by the reception building, and they sold some carrots inside. I figured it must be hungry." He tells his brother as he walks toward the horse. It opens it's eyes, looking hungrily at the bucket Sam holds out to it. He grabs an apple, reaching out to the horse. It stretches out to the apple in his hand, and follows him when he slowly backs away.

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"Is that an apple?" Castiel thinks as Sam holds out his hand towards him. "Oh, I am so hungry..." he realises as his body automatically moves after Sam as he backs off towards the motel wall. He steals the apple out of Sam's hand, but it isn't nearly enough. When Sam puts the bucket down and steps away from it, Castiel immediately sticks his head in to get more of the fruit. He jumps at the sound of the Impala roaring to life, and stares in defeat after the black muscle car as it leaves the parking lot with both brothers inside. As he can't do anything about it, he goes back to eating up the carrots and the apples, and drinking the water Sam had found for him.

After finishing the bucket of water, he wanders aimlessly around the parking lot, before hiding in between the trees again. While waiting for the brothers to come back, he thinks over how cruel Dean had been to him this short time of being a horse. He can't believe Dean doesn't recognise him.

Sensing he is about to get into a dangerous train of thoughts, he focuses on staring at the motel instead. Closing off his thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dumb horse.." Dean grunts as they leave to get breakfast. Sam just looks at him for a minute.

"Do you really think you should be so harsh towards him? You said yourself he isn't a normal horse" Sam begins, watching his brother while he speaks. "And... doesn't he feel familiar to you? And those eyes... and his attitude... I tell you, he reminds me of Cas." Sam says carefully.

"Him? And what. You think the witch turned Cas into a horse? No way, dude. If anything, they do like, frogs and shit. Not fucking horses." Dean replies irritated. He grinds his teeth, and Sam sees a muscle in his jaw jump. He stays silent after that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castiel didn't realise he'd fallen asleep until he woke with a start at the sound of the Impala approaching. He waited patently for the brothers to park the car. When they got out of the car, they opened the back doors and pulled some bags and books out of the back seat. They went inside the motel-room without closing the doors, and Castiel caught sight of his spare trench coat in the back.

Dean had gotten him a spare coat that fitted him a little better soon after the fall. It was a present to make him feel better, and he often used that one instead of the old one. It had slightly different details to it, but other than that, it was the exact same colour, and looked pretty much like the old one.

He trots to the car, leans in and snatches the coat out of the seat, turning his head and tossing it over his back. When he turns back, he can see both brothers standing frozen right outside the door of the motel, staring in shock at him. He neighs at them, turns his head to the coat, then back at them, trying to tell them who he is.

Dean suddenly looks like he's staring at Azazel. His expression turns cold with hate and he takes a step closer, staring directly at the coat. It looks like he's reaching for the gun in the back of his pants, and Castiel starts to panic. He's not going to shoot him, is he? He can't be.

Luckily, Sam catches Dean's movements, and jumps on him. "Are you fucking out of your mind?!" he yells at his brother, grabbing the gun out of his hand. He turns back to Castiel. "Cas... is that you?" he asks.

Castiel could have cried in relief. "yes!" he tries to say, remembering too late that he can't speak. It comes as a snort. He nods his head, trying to answer the best he can.

"Oh my god... Cas..." Sam murmurs. He walks closer to him, looking him in the eye.

"That is not Castiel!" Dean shouts. Sam turns to look at him in disbelief. Castiel feels his heart sink, and he lowers his head sadly.

"Remind me to never get cursed into an animal with only you around..." Sam says, disgusted at his brother for not seeing the obvious. Dean only snorts and retreats to the motel room, slamming the door behind him.

Castiel nudges his head against Sam's shoulder. Sam turns around, looking apologetically at him. "I'm so sorry... He's worried sick about you, you know... I guess he just can't accept the fact that you were turned to a horse..." Sam tries to comfort him, but doesn't seem to know how. He reaches up and pets his forehead.

"This is kind of awkward, isn't it?" Sam removes his hand with an apologetic smile. Castiel lowers his head over Sam's shoulder, trying his best to hug him. Right now nothing feels awkward to him. He just needs it. "We'll find a way to get you back to normal. I promise." Sam says and reaches up to hug the horse back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean sank down on his bed after slamming the door shut. "Could it be..? Is it really him out there?" He thinks, staring down at the T-shirt he's wearing. He shouldn't really be surprised. In their line of work, everything is possible. But he simply can't feel it. Yes, it has Cas's eyes, and it acts somewhat like him, but it could all be a trick. What if the witch got hold of Cas and decided to play a trick on them? What if that animal out there actually is the witch's Familiar?

Dean rubs his hand down his face, sighing in frustration. Cas had made him drink much less, and made him promise to keep it like that, but right now he really felt like having some whiskey. He almost stood up to go buy some, but then remembered the horse by his car. He groaned. Then he remembered the small fridge under the desk. He jumped off of the bed, opened the fridge and fisted his hand in triumph, before taking the small bottles of alcohol out and shutting it.

Dean was about to down the last small bottle, when Sam came back inside. He just caught Dean swallowing the remains of the bottle, before he turned away from Sam.

"Dean! What the hell?" Sam's Bitch face was in place instantly. He looked around the room, seeing the empty small bottles on the desk, the bottle of alcohol they used for disinfection, and some beer bottles in the trashcan. There never were much alcohol in those small bottles, but there had been plenty in their medicine bag.

Sam fixes his stare back at his brother. The man was pouting at the empty bottle, but soon turned around with a drunken grin on his face. "I haven't been with you for what, Ten, Fifteen minutes, and you drank up all the alcohol there was in here? What about your promise to Cas?" Sam Sighed and sat down.

"Well, Cas ain't here, is he. Bastard went and disappeared on me. And there's a horse harassing me. IthinkI'mallowedtodrinkafterall" the last sentence was said somewhat slurry and fast. He stared at Sam, and then made for the door. "My keys" he demanded when he remembered Sam had them.

"Forget it. I'm not letting you drive like that!" Sam tossed back. "Cas is going to be pissed." He added more quietly.

"Whatever. There's a bar just down the road. I'll walk." Dean tossed back at Sam and slammed the door behind him. He stumbled slightly just outside the door, but straightened up fast. He looked around, and when he couldn't see the horse, he smirked a little, before walking off towards the bar.

He froze in his steps however, when he heard clicking noises behind him. He closed his eyes begging for it not to be the horse, and turned around. Of course it was the fucking horse! It followed him just a few steps behind him, and stopped when he turned towards it. It almost looked worried as it gazed back at him.

"Leave me alone!" He shouts at it and keeps walking. He sighs as he hears the stubborn horse still following him, but he tries to ignore it.

Just as he's about to go through the bar doors, he feels something grabbing onto his jacket collar and yanking him backwards. He turns around annoyed and stares at the horse. "Give me a fucking break!" he yells and stomps through the doors anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cas feels horrible. After watching Dean stomp through the doors, he falls back, trying to hide the best he can in an alleyway. A few drunks walks past, stopping abruptly, staring shocked at him for a while before running off away from the bar.

He had been hiding for a few hours when finally, Dean stumbles out. But he's not alone. After Dean, two very big, muscular guys comes out, shouting at him. Dean slurs some insults their way, making one of the guys jump on him. The big guy lands a hard blow to Dean's jaw. Dean lands a drunken blow to the guy's abdomen, only making the guy laugh. The other Guy joins in, and Dean takes several hits, before Castiel rushes forward.

He comes in behind Dean just as he's sent flying to the ground. Castiel stares the guys down, letting out a low threatening neigh as he steps protectingly over Dean. The guys stares at him for a few moments, before bursting out laughing.

Castiel doesn't like how they try to close in on them while laughing, so he ends up jumping forward, smashing his head into the forehead of the closest man. The man falls unconsciously to the ground, and the other one stares dumbfounded between the man on the ground and the horse.

The man backs off a bit, so Castiel turns to face Dean, still on the ground. He's fallen asleep. Suddenly, Castiel hears the familiar click of a gun. He spins around and rears, kicking his hooves towards the sound. The gun goes off just before Castiel hits the man's jaw. The pain shoots through him, making him almost loose balance. He watches the man fall to the ground. He too, unconscious.

Castiel looks at the wound on his thigh. It doesn't seem so bad, but it bleeds, and it hurts a lot. He turns his attention to Dean. He thinks about dragging him by his collar back to the motel, but decides it would be very uncomfortable for him. He decides then to lay down beside him, trying to wake him by nudging his shoulder.

Dean wakes and mumbles something. He looks drunkenly at the horse and grins. "Hey there horsie! What do you say we go for a ride!" He blurts out, and crawls upon Castiel's back. Castiel stays down, confused for a moment, before he realizes he can get Dean back to the motel this way. He stands back up carefully, trying not to use his hurt leg too much. "Wohaa! When did I get on a rollercoaster?!" Dean blurts before clutching Castiel's mane, and practically laying down. Castiel starts walking, favouring his right hind leg. Soon he hears Dean's soft snores again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam jumps at the loud banging on the door. He grabs his gun, opening the door cautiously. He stares at the horse for a moment before realising Dean's on its back. "What happened?! Is he ok?" Sam hurries over to bring Dean down, and into the motel room. As he gets Dean on the bed, he realises he has bruises on his face. He lifts his shirt to check for other injuries, but only finds bruises. He sighs in relief. He turns back to Castiel, about to thank him for getting his brother back, but then he sees him holding up his right hind leg. As he looks closer, he sees blood dripping from a wound somewhere.

"Cas! What happened! Why are you bleeding?" he asks, running over to check him over. The horse flinches slightly at the touch, but stays in place while Sam checks him out. "Oh god.. you were shot at?!" Sam stares the horse in the eye. It nods and whips it's tail back and forth in irritation. "Hold on, I think I can get the bullet out and stitch it.. but you'll have to get inside." Sam said, gesturing for Castiel to get into the Motel room.

The horse stares at him, and then at the small room, like it was asking him if he lost his mind. "Come on, I know it's small, but you know I can't do this out in the open." Sam says slapping Cas friendly on his back. Once again the horse flinches, but slowly walks into the room. It stands awkwardly between the beds and the wall, not knowing where to put itself.

Sam suddenly appears by Cas's head, staring into his eyes, holding up a pair of long tweezers. "I'll have to dig that bullet out. It will most likely be painful. But please, try to be quiet, and don't move too much. Ready?" Cas lays his ears flat, but nods slightly.

He Can feel it when Sam sticks the tweezers into his wound. A startled cry escapes before he manages to silence himself as Sam keeps going.

It felt like hours, but it only took a few minutes to get the bullet out and get the wound stitched.

Sam smiles at him apologetically as he cleans off the blood from Cas's Thigh.

Sam suddenly realizes where he was rubbing the cloth, if Cas had been human right about now, and decides it had been cleaned enough. He looks startled as he backs off from the big horse.

Cas shifts in place, not knowing where to put himself. Eventually, Sam settles on his bed, telling Cas to try get some sleep if he could get somewhat comfortable. Castiel ends up falling asleep while standing, though favouring his right hind leg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean groans as he awakes, his chest feeling like it had been trampled by a horse. He finds he can not remember anything after settling by the bar last night.

He stands up, swaying a bit. Somehow he'd managed to peel the pillowcase off the pillow while he'd slept, and now it lay crumpled on his shoulder. He stares down at it with a confused frown, before reaching up to take it.

He realises the air in the room is very heavy, he also hears heavy breathing. No, wait. That sounds like two breathing patterns. _What the hell. _

Suddenly he sees a huge shadow before him in the still dark room. He jumps sky high, and by instinct hits in front of himself, ending up using the pillowcase as a whip.

A high pitched cry fills the room just as Dean feels the pillowcase hit and catch a bit in something in front of him.

Dean can hear Sam scrambling in his bed as well as scraping sounds and a heavy thud in front of him as the shadow sinks to the ground.

The lights blinds Dean for a moment. "What the hell did you do?!" he hears Sam shout at him. When he finally manages to open his eyes, he sees Sam kneeling in front of the horse. _The horse? What the hell is it doing in here? _He stares in shocked silence at the collapsed creature. "You pulled the stitches out! And made him bleed again!" Sam tosses at him.

"What is it doing in our room anyway?! Wait... Stitches? What's going on here?" Dean felt a pang of worry, but he pushed it down fast.

"He got shot, presumably while protecting your drunken sorry ass yesterday. And still he carried you back here!" Sam Gets the needle and thread out from their medical kit, crouching by the horse's head. "I'm sorry Cas, I'll have to stitch it again thanks to my idiot brother." He whispers. A weak whine escapes the horse's mouth.

Dean watches Sam stitch the wound again. He suddenly sees the horse watching him wearily with those intense blue eyes.

_Is it really him? With those eyes... it has to be him... but what if it isn't? I've been terrible to him. What is he thinking about me now? No. stop it. Sam can't see you like this. Cas can't see you like this. If it is Cas. _

Dean shook his head and walked into the bathroom. He couldn't take this right now. "We need to find somewhere big enough for us all to stay together" He heard Sam say. He ignored it for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean drove through town looking for a place they could stay with the horse. Sam had gone back to searching the internet and newspapers for anything supernatural. Especially a certain witch.

He soon finds an abandoned barn. He's impressed that it's still standing, in fact he's impressed it's in such good shape. The house beside it however is a total wreck, having been burned almost to the ground. Taking a look inside, he decides it's safe and will be warm enough as soon as they get the space heater going. Dean's luck usually ends up with something bad happening, but this time it gave him a break for once. There's electricity in the barn.

Coming back out from the barn, he looks around more closely. It's located by a huge forest, and apart from a small pasture on the other side of the house, there's not much land here.

He picks out his phone, pressing the speed dial and brings it to his ear. It only rings once. "Hiya Sammy. Found an abandoned barn by this burnt down house. It even has electricity! Pack your stuff, I'll be there in ten." He hung up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dean finally shows up, 30 minutes had passed since he called Sam. "what took you so long?" Sam asks him as he enters the motel room. Dean doesn't answer, only tossing his keys to Sam.

Dean eyes the pillows and covers on the bed. "We paid up front, didn't we?"

"Yeah, why?"

Dean grabs the covers, tossing them over his shoulder, ruffling through the closet by the door, letting out a sound in triumph as he finds two more covers. He also grabs all the pillows and makes for the door.

As he gets back inside, he picks up their duffle bags and walks back out. Cas and Sam changes looks, before following him out.

Castiel watches the brothers have a conversation too silent for him to hear, and then Sam walks off to deliver the keys at the front desk.

Castiel moves his attention back to Dean. He's approaching him, guilt in his eyes. "Hey.. Are you really Cas..?" Castiel nods, staring at Dean. "Shit.. I've been a douche. Do you feel better?" Dean gestures towards Cas' thigh. Castiel nods slowly.

Dean reaches up and places his hands on either side of Cas' head, leaning in and resting his forehead against it. "We'll get you changed back soon. I promise." He whispers. "But know this. If this is a trick, and you are not Castiel, I will fucking kill you." As he says this, his hands tightens around Cas' head. He backs away a little, staring fiercely into his eyes.

"I am Castiel!" Castiel wants to scream at Dean, but then Dean loosens his grip around his head and lets one of his hands stroke carefully down his face. Castiel forgets he was ever mad at Dean for not seeing the obvious, and leans into the touch.

"Ready to go?" Sam walks over to them, car keys in hand.

"I'll walk with this one here. Kinda owe it after what I did." Dean mumbles. "I told you where it is, so go get our stuff inside."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You ok?" Dean asks as they walk slowly on their way to the abandoned barn. Castiel's thigh hurts, and he favours his leg as they walk. He nods in answer to Dean's question. Dean walks a little bit ahead of Castiel, leading the way.

Suddenly they hear a screech from a car abruptly stopping just behind them. A woman hurries out, slams the door and stomps towards them. Castiel stops, turns his head and ears towards her, curious to what's going on.

"Is that your horse?!" She yells at Dean. Dean flinches a bit at her tone, but quickly draws himself together and squares his shoulders.

The woman has her honey coloured hair in a pony tail. She's wearing a light blue shirt tucked into tight fitting dark brown riding pants, with her knee high black riding boots over the pant legs. Her eyes a fierce gold.

"Yeah. Why?" He spits at her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to it?! Why are you dragging it with you all this way when it clearly is in pain?!" She screams at him.

Taken aback, Dean just stares at her for a moment. "Do you see any rope here, lady? Does it really look like I'm fucking forcing him along?" He spits back.

Having had enough of this woman verbally violate Dean, Cas lets out a low neigh, stepping in between the two, slightly pushing the woman away. He turns his head toward her and pulls his ears down, trying to look angry, whipping his tail in irritation.

She just stares shocked at him. "Easy there Cas. She's just a concerned woman interfering with things she has no clue about. Let's go." Dean smirks and starts walking.

Castiel snorts in the shocked woman's face, making her flinch, before he follows Dean.

After getting far enough away from the woman, Dean slows down just slightly. "Does it hurt a lot?" Dean whispers, guilt cloaking his voice. Castiel doesn't know how he can answer Dean. It hurts, yes. But it's not too bad. He tries to shake his head as best as he can. Dean doesn't look like he believes him, but he stays silent, and keeps walking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam stares at the supplies inside the barn. That's why Dean had been so late. He had gone and bought food for Cas. Or really, he had bought horse food, but Cas is a horse right now, so he probably need that. There's hay, apples, carrots, oats... he had really gone out of his way to feed him.

He plugs in the little space heater Dean had purchased, starting it up to get warmth in the barn. He gets all their stuff inside, and sits down to do more research, waiting for his Brother and Cas.

Half an hour later, the barn door opens, and Dean lets Cas inside, closing it behind him. Cas looks tired as he walks over to Sam, he doesn't even look at the food as he walks past it.

Dean grabs two of the covers from the motel room, spreading them neatly side by side on the floor close to where Sam had dumped their sleeping bags. "Hey, you can lay down here. It'll be better than laying on the cold floor" He says softly. Cas looks grateful for that. He lays down on the covers immediately. Soon, Dean spreads the last two covers over him to keep him warm. Cas is already asleep.

Dean walks over and sits down beside his bother. They sit in silence like that, just staring into nothingness for a while.

"Do you think he's in much pain?" Dean asks quietly, staring at Castiel.

Sam watches his brother's concerned expression. "Finally starting to believe it's actually Cas?" he asks a bit mockingly, but careful. He earns an unreadable look from his brother.

Dean sighs in resignation. "Who else would do dumb shit like taking a bullet to protect my drunk ass?" he smiles fondly but his eyes still look sad.

"I imagine it feels just like being shot or stabbed as a human, in which we have lots of experience." Sam answers Dean's earlier question. "Yes, it probably hurts." He adds more quietly.

They both return to silence.

Sam, suddenly aware that his computer had fallen into sleep mode, decides it is about time to get some sleep himself. He closes his laptop and places it on his duffle beside him.

"I'm going to bed. You should too. We still have that witch to find." He says quietly as not to wake up Castiel. He stands up and looks at his brother.

"Yeah you're right." Dean huffs as Sam take his hand, helping him up from the floor. They grab their sleeping bags, spread them out side by side, and crawls into their warmth. Soon they are both fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam wakes early the next day. Disoriented, he looks around to find out where he is, suddenly remembering he's in a barn. He looks over to where his brother laid down the night before.

Dean's gone.

Panicked, Sam stands and searches the barn. He almost bursts out laughing when he finally finds him. Dean's curled up against Castiel, and has crawled in under the covers he'd put on Cas the night before. Castiel himself is awake, and stares in disbelief down at Dean.

"I guess he finally decided you're truly Cas." Sam laughs quietly, and pats Castiel on the head. "I'll look for more sings of witch activity." He added and found his computer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean wakes slowly, finding himself oddly comfortable even though he slept on the floor all night. He rubs his eyes, and blinks at the light. Suddenly he realizes he's in a sitting position, and he's leaning against something warm and moving. He turns around to see he's leaning up against Castiel's stomach, and his eyes widens in shock. And then Castiel's face, or rather, the face of a horse is up in his vision. It snorts him in the face.

Sam's roaring laughter fills up the whole barn, and Dean turns to glare at him. "So sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up?" Sam laughs.

"Well if it isn't Rapunzel. Why don't you let down your hair for me to climb." Dean replies crankily.

"uh.. what?" Sam asks confused at the choice of reply. "Anyway. So I didn't get anywhere on the witch, but I found something else. I was wondering what happened to this place, you know with the house burning down. And I found this strange thing." He looks at Dean, making sure his brother is actually listening.

"So it was the man in the house who burnt it down, but the strange part is that he had been on this hike in the woods behind this house, and had been missing for days, until he suddenly came back clad in nothing but a loincloth. He had been talking about fairies and dragons and had been sent off to the psychiatric hospital. But he kept saying the dragon would burn his house down. He escaped without the nurses ever finding out how, and he lit the house on fire, killing his wife and children in the process. He then ran back into the woods and was found burned to death without any damage to the nature around him."

"Dude. A loincloth?" Dean wrinkles his nose, adjusting himself in his pants at the thought of it. Until he catches Castiel's expression. He looks terribly bored at his reaction, and proceeds to roll his eyes as good as a horse can. It kind of reminds him of that one cartoon he watched a while back. The one with the wild mustang. Spirit, yes. Spirit the stallion of the Cimarron was the name of it. When thinking about it, Cas kind of looks like the stallion himself. Stunned speechless, and a little confused after his thought process, he returns his attention to Sam.

Sam had obviously not paid attention to Dean's outburst, as he's concentrating on reading something on his screen.

"They say here that he had talked about a huge tree in the middle of the woods, and a small white stone of some sorts... huh..." Sam turned silent for a bit.

"What?" Dean was finally awake enough to get up from his position by Castiel's stomach. He stretches and ruffles through his hair.

"According to this one nurse, he had, in one of his sanest moments, talked about a very tall dark skinned man with a beard, loincloth and glowing eyes, smoking a pipe. He had seen him by the big tree in the woods. The tall man had turned to him, grinned, and a few moments later the fairies and dragons were chasing him." Sam pauses. "Have you ever heard anything like it?"

"The closest I can get is the case with the children's drawings that turned real. Or the one with the actual fairies involved.." Dean shudders at the memory.

"There are a total of five people either disappearing or found dead in the forest just in the past two months, and none of them look normal to me."

"I guess we'll have to check it out then. Let's start with the people in town." Dean mumbles rummaging around his belongings looking for anything to drink other than water. He comes up empty handed, and grabs a bottle of water with a sigh.

"Let's put everything in the car in case we need to hurry out of here" Sam adds quietly, looking guiltily at Cas. Castiel looks at him in understanding and gives him a nod.

"You wanna start with that?" Dean sips from the water bottle, heading for the horse food he'd bought. "Hey, you look hungry... I brought you some food last night. Come here and get some, I'll fill a bucket of water for you." He directs at Cas. The horse gets up, and happily walks over to the man. He really is hungry.

While Dean walks off to fill the bucket with water, Castiel buries his mule into the sack of oats, munching happily. When Dean places the bucket of water beside the oats, Castiel reaches for it at once. He jumps when he feels something around his neck, and stops drinking to rise up and see what it is.

Dean tricked him.

He'd had a rope tied much like a noose around the bucket, which he had hurriedly brought up around Cas's neck as he reached down to drink, and he's already tied it to a ring in the wall, obviously put there for this kind of use.

Cas rises his head high, staring down at Dean with his ears flat against his head, stomping the ground with his right front leg. He lets out a low neigh, sounding like a growl.

"Sorry. You'll have to stay here. I'm still not entirely convinced you're Cas. And if you appear not to be, I would prefer not to be stabbed in the back while investigating. Besides, we can't drag a horse around while asking about this case." Dean says. Cas replies with a whip of his tail in irritation.

"Dean. You sure about this? I mean... If you should find out it really is Cas, and you treat him like this...?" Sam whispers to Dean.

"I'm sure he'll understand once this is all over." Dean simply says as he picks up his duffle and heads out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After driving around town, asking the inhabitants about the disappearances and mysterious deaths, Sam and Dean are on their way back to the barn. "Everyone was saying basically the same thing. Nice people suddenly turning insane after visiting the forest. Seems we have to go in there ourselves. Besides, there's another missing person." Dean sums up. Sam nods, seemingly in deep thought when suddenly his face is filled with fear as he stares out the windshield.

"Dean!" he breaths in shock. Dean turns his gaze towards where Sam is pointing, and he feels like his heart stops.

Black smoke.

He steps on the gas pedal, speeding the impala towards the smoke.

Towards the barn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He jumps out of the car, sprinting towards the burning barn, the terrified screaming neighs coming from the inside only making him run faster. But before he can get even remotely close, he's tackled to the ground by his brother. "Dean! Are you insane?! You'll kill yourself!" Sam yells at his brother.

"Cas is in there!" Dean yells back, trying to get to his feet.

"Look at it! You can't even get inside without getting burned, and the roof is caving in! You can't!" Sam tightens his grip around Dean, using his weight to hold him down.

"CAS!" Dean yells, tears starting to form in his panicked eyes. "CASTIEL!" he yells even louder, when they hear cracking sounds from the building. The barn is completely covered in flames, with no way to get in without risking one's life. They can hear the panicked yells coming from the horse inside the building.

A deafening crack sounds like gunfire as a part of the roof caves in at the back of the barn.

The screams are abruptly cut off.

Dean stares at the flames for a moment more, before his head sinks to the ground. He lays there completely still. A horrified expression in his face.

Sam stares at the flames as he moves off of Dean, not believing what happened. Secretly praying to Cas, even though he know he can't hear him even if he is alive.

A boom, like banging on crispy wood, catches his attention, and he looks back to the barn door. As he watches, it splinters open. A few seconds later, the horse jumps through, gallops a few feet away from the burning mass, before it stops and breathes frantically. It then sinks to the ground in exhaustion.

"Dean! He made it!" Sam shakes his brother before running over to Cas.

He's lying on the ground, breathing frantically with his eyes closed. Or rather, trying to breathe. The noose Dean had tied him up with, had tightened hard around his neck, not loosening up again. Reacting fast, Sam fishes out a knife concealed in his boot, cutting the rope off. Cas immediately gasps as air finally finds it's way easily into his lungs.

Sam looks at the rope, to see how Cas got out. It was bunt off in about the middle of the length Dean had given him. He looked over the horse's body, looking for injuries, other than the bullet wound. There are none. He sighs in relief as he strokes the horse's neck in a soothing motion, while it lays there breathing.

Sam looks over at Dean then. He has pulled himself up in a sitting position, and is staring at Castiel with part relief, part shock and part doubt.

It takes Cas half an hour to get back on his feet. Sam is impressed he got up so soon. Dean has stayed in the same spot all this time, and Castiel walks over to him as soon as he gets on his feet. He puts his head down to Dean's face and rubs it against his cheek, trying to comfort him. It takes a few moments for him to react, but Dean soon wraps his arms around the horse's face, burying his own in it. He whispers apologies that only Cas can hear.


	2. Chapter 2

They have been searching for about two hours when they stumble across a freshly burnt body. None of the nature around it has been damaged, telling them it's connected to their case. They walk deeper in between the trees.

Suddenly the trees open up to a clearing with a huge tree in the middle. They look around, seeing animals hiding in the branches of the gigantic tree, but no sign of the man in loincloth.

However, when they turn around, he's right behind them, towering three heads above Sam, dark skin, long beard and a grin as vicious as the wicked witch. He's wearing a loincloth just as the insane man had described, and his eyes shines like fire. He reaches out a hand, touching Dean's forehead. Dean's eyes widen, and he fumbles for his gun. Just as they reach their guns, the man dissolves into nothingness.

A rumble off to their left catches their attention. They turn around to see the biggest clawed foot they had ever seen, make contact with the ground, tearing down the trees around it. They look up as they start backing away, to see a big dinosaur like head with glinting red eyes look down on them. It opens it's mouth, letting out a rumbling growl as hot breath comes down at them like a strong wind.

They break into a sprint away from the huge dragon. "I thought dragons was in human shape these days!" Dean shouts at Sam as they sprint as fast as their feet can carry them, Castiel galloping beside them, not wanting to leave them behind.

"I thought so too!" Sam shouts back.

As they run, a great big hole opens in the ground up front. Dean's the first to see it and yells for them to stop. Unfortunately, Sam's long legs won't cooperate. He tries to stop, even tries to throw himself backwards, but he'd been running too fast to be able to stop this abruptly.

"SAM!" Dean yells as he sees his brother starting to fall. Sam just manages to catch a glimpse of his brother's pained expression just as the world seems to start spinning. He feels a pull at his neck, and hits his head at something before he suddenly feels himself lying on the ground. His sight is blurry for a second, and as it clears, he sees a horse's mule over him.

"Fairies!" He hears Dean shout, and feels himself being dragged to his feet, stumbling along as they start to run again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean feels like his heart stops when he sees Sam falling. Sam looks him in the eyes, and he can see his brother is afraid. Dean wants to jump in after him, but just as he readies himself, Cas shoots forward and bites onto Sam's Jacket collar, yanking him back. Sam falls to the ground, hitting his head.

Dean lets out a breath of relief, but something about the hole catches his attention. He carefully walks closer, now seeing the hole lighting up from below. It's a strange pink light, getting stronger and stronger, until a few faster rays of light reach the edge. Fairies. Dean can never forget the sight of those small naked things.

"Fairies!" he screams as he stumbles to Sam's side, pulling him up. First, Sam struggles to keep up, but they gather speed as they go. However that proves to not be enough. Some of the fastest fairies are by Dean's side, pulling his hair, scratching at his face, biting his skin.

"They're catching up!" he yells. That was a mistake. A fairy finds it's way into his mouth, choking him, as others keep pulling his hair and clothes. More and more of them gathers around him, and pulls at the bottom of his jeans, eventually making him stumble and fall. He tries to get up, hitting and pulling at the fairies, but they keep covering him up, trying to drag him down.

Castiel hears Dean stumble to the ground, and turns to help. He runs to his side, scaring off most of the fairies. He bites after them as Dean grabs them and toss them away. He gets back to his feet and again they run.

"They're gonna catch up again!" Dean shouts again. But he gets an idea. "You're fast! Let us ride you!" He realises too late how that sounds, and turns red as a tomato.

Castiel stumbles to a halt, swinging his head around to look at Dean, eyes wide, mouth open. He clearly heard what Dean just said, but it takes a while for him to get what he really means.

He nods.

Sam and Dean climbs onto his broad back. The whole thing is awkward. Castiel is a huge horse, but Sam is still a tall guy with long feet. He sits behind Dean, and they take a moment to arrange themselves. Sam gives in, and wraps his arms around Dean. Dean on the other hand, takes a firm grip of Castiel's mane.

Castiel imagined it would be much heavier than it is. It feels strange to have both Winchesters on his back, but he pushes his feelings down.

Every muscle in his body tenses, and then they're in full gallop.

Although the wound in his leg still hurts, he ignores it in favour of speed. It doesn't take long until they've outrun the fairies, but Castiel doesn't slow down until they've gotten far away.

Just as he thinks about slowing down, he sees a silhouette of a person up ahead. He stops somewhat abruptly almost making Sam and Dean fall off of him. They both climb down somewhat shakily, turning their attention to the silhouette.

Cas looks at the person, with his head slightly lowered, ears flat against his head. Suddenly it looks as if he recognizes the person. His head shoots up, as does his ears. He neighs, and takes a few steps forward.

A chuckle can be heard from the cloaked person coming out of the shadows. Both Sam and Dean reach for their guns, and look at each other for a second.

Castiel nods his head, and rears a bit, before he's back on the ground. He jumps a bit before closing in on the man. He looks so happy to see him.

"Sam. Isn't that the damn witch we were hunting?" Dean whispers as he points the gun at the witch.

"Looks like it. If the descriptions we got were correct." Sam whispers back.

"And that horse being so happy to see him must mean it's his familiar. He's been fucking with us all this time!" There's a tremble in his voice as he speaks. Sam looks over to him, full of regret for being so sure it was Cas they had been hanging out with.

The man in the cloak lifts a hand to stroke the horse's neck. It closes it's eyes as the hand connects with his skin.

Dean readies his gun, and aims for the horse's head. After all, he'd told the horse what he would do if he found out he wasn't Cas. His finger tightens on the trigger.

Sam looks nervously at his brother and back to the man and the horse. He isn't sure at all what to think. But if Dean shoots the horse, and it turns out to really be Cas, there will be no turning back. When he looks at Dean again, he can see a strange glint in his eyes. Like they are flames. Then he hears the man speak.

"Sorry 'bout that. Let's get you changed back huh, baby bro." the mischievous, silk smooth voice is unmistakeable. The man moves his hand up to the horse's forehead.

"DEAN NO!" Sam shouts and jumps on his brother, trying to move the gun away from the horse in time, but Dean is fast. The shot sounds louder than normal. Sam turns around to see where he'd hit.

There is no horse anymore.

"Castiel!" The man in the cloak screams.

He's standing alone.

Sam looks to the ground. Castiel is back. And he's collapsed on the ground. He lets go of his brother, as he takes a step toward the collapsed figure.

The cloaked man sinks to the ground beside him, the hood falling off his head, revealing him to be Gabriel. His expression is pained as he reaches over to his brother. He turns Castiel around, and sucks in a breath at the sight of his brother.

Castiel has a bullet wound in his chest, and he's bleeding furiously. He's gasping for air, but doesn't seem to be able to really breathe. "no, no, no, no..." Gabriel whispers, pulling Castiel onto his lap.

Castiel looks terrified as he looks into his brother's eyes. The pain is clear on his face.

"Can't you heal him?" Sam whispers too shocked to raise his voice.

"I'm trying! I used all my powers just to turn him back!" Gabriel looks lost when he meets Sam's eyes. It's terrible to see him like that. He'd always been the trickster, the one who always had a plan. They'd thought he died back when Lucifer got to him, but they had seen signs that he might have survived. Castiel had also been sure that Gabriel survived Lucifer. And now he's there right in front of them. Alive.

Sam turns to look at his brother. After all, he was the one who shot him.

Dean is staring in disbelief at Gabriel and Castiel. "What.. what happened.." He whispers. "How did he get here..? what happened to Cas?!" he's louder now.

"Dean... you shot him... you were convinced Gabriel was the witch and Cas was his familiar and you shot him before we were sure!" Sam shakes his brother.

"No! I realised he was Cas!" Dean stares back at Sam. There are tears in his eyes, and he looks absolutely horrified. His attention is drawn to Castiel as he hears him cough.

There is blood coming from Castiel's mouth, he's trembling, and his breathing is no more than shallow gasps for air. Gabriel has pulled off his cloak and is now pressing it to the wound in Castiel's chest, trying to stop the bleeding as Cas is propped up against his lap.

"Cas...?" Dean's voice is weak as he takes a step closer to his boyfriend. But the only reaction he gets is the most horrified expression he's ever seen on Cas, and Castiel trying to inch away from Dean as he shakily grabs Gabriel's arm. It results in more coughing and making it even harder to breathe.

He looks up at Gabriel, pleading. "I'm trying baby bro... I'm trying. Hang in there!" Gabriel pleads.

Dean can't believe it. Castiel is afraid of him. He doesn't want to be close to him. After all these years, and now he's afraid of him.

Sam is confused. Dean doesn't seem to remember what he'd done. He couldn't have been possessed, could he? He still had the anti-possession tattoo, didn't he? He grabs Dean's shirt and yanks it down to see the tattoo is still in place. Dean doesn't even notice.

"Cassie..? Brother!" Sam turns to Gabriel and Castiel, the terror in Gabriel's voice is unbearable.

Castiel's breath stutters some more, his hand goes limp slowly and slides to the ground.

His eyes loose their shine.

The stuttering breathing stops.

Castiel is gone.

Those beautiful blue eyes are now just empty, lifeless and dull. His skin is pale, his body once so strong, now looking small as it lays there, limp and covered in blood.

Gabriel frantically searches for a pulse he knows he won't find.

"No..." Dean breaths. He stumbles over, and falls to the ground beside Castiel. He strokes his hand down the other man's cheek. The tears now falling freely. He wraps his arms around the lifeless body, lifts him up onto his own lap. He hugs him. Kisses his forehead. Kisses his still lips. Hugs him tighter. He buries his face in Castiel's hair, as he rocks them both back and forth. The once so vibrant blue orbs staring lifelessly into nothingness.

Sam sinks down beside his brother, staring down at Castiel. He can't believe it. Yes, Cas has died countless times before and he always came back. But now he's human. There's no guarantee that God would still bring him back. And this time, Dean was the one pulling the trigger. Not some angel or leviathan. He looks over at his brother. Dean's a wreck. Rocking back and forth, trembling and sobbing.

"He was my last chance..." it was just a whisper, but Sam caught it. He turns his attention to Gabriel, sitting close by his brother.

"What do you mean Gabriel?" Sam asks quietly. Gabriel's teary eyes meets his.

"It has been hell after the angels fell. You use your powers, and they will look for you. You try go into hiding, not using any powers, but they still find you. It's like they're searching out every Angel they can find, either torturing them or killing them on the spot. Even if you're supposedly dead." Gabriel closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I was looking for Castiel, because he's the only one of my brothers and sisters that I'm willing to trust, even if he's human. I'd made it look like there was a witch in this town to lure you guys here, since it's the only way I could find you, but then Cassie snuck up on me and I accidentally turned him to a horse, using every bit of power I had left, so I had to go into hiding again to heal up enough to turn him back." He rubs a hand over his eyes, removing the tears that lingered there.

"I didn't think you cared about him that much..." Sam states carefully. "You know, thinking back to when you put us in TV-land and all. You weren't particularly kind to him." He adds.

"Oh, believe me. Had it been anyone else I'd probably kill them. Cassie is the one of my brothers I actually like. I watched over him when he was born. I was the only one who cared enough to do so..." He sighs then. "But we're getting him back." A determined expression replaced the hopelessness in his face. He even got some of his mischievous aura back.

"How so?" Sam asks hopefully. Cas is his best friend, and he's willing to do anything to get him back.

"The Kapre is a god of some sorts. He's a master of illusions, just like me, but his weak spot is this small white stone. If you find it, you get three wishes. Or at least one, I haven't really cared much about them before. And if you destroy it, you kill him, or sends him back to where he came from. Anyway, he won't be bothering the people here anymore at least. It's not really a stone though. It's some sort of glass or something, either way it's pretty easy to break." He thinks hard for a while before he continues. "Oh, yeah, don't let him near you though. He's got lots of nasty tricks. Like he turns you into animals, controls your mind... stuff like that. The only thing he needs, is a brief touch. He prefers the forehead since it's close to the brain."

"Son of a Bitch..." Sam mutters at this new piece of information. "He can control you even with the anti possession tattoo?" Sam bites his lip.

"Yup. Don't tell me that's what happened here!" Gabriel groans.

"He touched Dean" Sam sighs.

"Great, well then he's not trustworthy until this shit's done."

Dean looks like he hasn't heard a word of the conversation. He's still holding on to his Cas. Sam looks at him sadly.

"Let's get this over with right now." Sam stands, as does Gabriel. They look down at their brothers before leaving them to go find the Kapre.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It only takes them a few minutes until they find the clearing with the huge tree in the middle. Sam thinks it strange, because it had felt so long even when they were galloping through the forest. But he thinks about what Gabriel said about the Kapre being master of illusions. As far as they know, they'd only been walking in circles.

They can't see the Kapre anywhere, so Gabriel leads them towards the tree. He'd briefed Sam about there being no use to their weapons, since none would even hurt the thing. The only chance they have, will be to find the stone.

Sam looks up into the tree as they close in. there are lots of different animals up there. Deers, foxes, squirrels, bears, sheep, cows, there's even a horse or two in there. "What the hell...?"

"Yup, those are people. He made them into animals and put them in the tree to prevent them from escaping. They're his pets. And those burnt bodies you've seen? It's the people who escaped. They are told that if they get out of the forest, they will turn human again. But what he doesn't tell them is that they go insane and usually burn things to the ground. After a little while, they spontaneously combust and burn to coal without damaging the nature around it. The Kapre is very fond of animals and nature, you see. That's most likely why it chose to make Dean shoot baby bro... both because he wanted Dean to suffer, and he somehow knew I was turning him back to human." The spark of determination in Gabriel's eyes wavers for a moment. He then turns and gives Sam a half hearted grin.

When they reach the tree, they start searching for holes in the trunk, or rooms under the roots, looking for any hole big enough to contain a small stone. As they come back around to where they started, Sam freezes. He's staring toward where they'd come from.

"Gabe... didn't we walk for at least five minutes?" He stands stock still.

"Yeah, wh-" Gabriel shuts his mouth as he sees the same thing Sam does.

Dean is sitting in the same position as they'd left him in, except he's stopped rocking. He just sits there, clutching on to Castiel's body. They're only a few feet from the tree.

"We've fucking been here the whole time! That clever fuck! He can't change the position of the tree, but he can make up illusions around it, and make it feel like you're walking straight ahead for hours, but actually you might be walking in a very small circle." Gabriel facepalms at that.

"You're very clever yourself for figuring that out. But perhaps one should expect that from an Arch Angel of the Lord." The very dark, rumbling voice is carried by the wind.

"Your speech pattern is terribly modern I must say!" Gabriel shouts at the Kapre. He's no where to be seen at this point, but he hopes to lure him out.

"Oh, you pick up a thing or two when you're as close to these hairless apes as I have been for so many years." The Kapre responds.

"Then perhaps you've picked up that they like doing stuff face to face!" Gabriel tries putting mockery in his voice.

"Oh yes. Indeed they do." The Kapre appears just behind Sam then. Sam just manages to jump out of reach before the Kapre manage to reach out to him. As he turns he catches a glimpse of something small and white hanging from the side of the loincloth.

Sam looks at Gabriel, and the Angel nods in confirmation. He's seen it too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean lifts his head from Castiel's hair. His tears have dried up, leaving him red and puffy around the eyes. He looks down at Castiel's face, his eyes still staring dead. He puts his fingers gently on Cas's eyelids, carefully pulling them closed. He kisses his forehead again, not wanting to let go. However much he wants to hold his dead boyfriend, he can't. He lays him down very carefully, arranging him into a somewhat comfortable position and stroking the dark hair away from his forehead.

Dean looks up with murder in his eyes. He watches his brother and Gabriel dance around the Kapre for a while, trying to read the Kapre's movements. Sam jumps for the stone at the Kapre's hip, but the giant is too fast. He jumps out of the way, touching Sam as he flies past him. When Sam get's up, he has the same strange shine in his eyes as the Kapre for a few seconds, and then he pulls out his gun, starting to shoot at Gabriel.

It only took Dean a few moments to realize the stone on the Kapre's hip is fake. The Kapre doesn't really care if they get their hands on that stone, although it provides a nice distraction. He can see it in the way the Kapre moves. Not really caring too much about the stone on his hip. However, he's very interested in watching where his opponents are at all times.

Without drawing attention to himself, Dean sneaks off into the cover of the bushes and Trees around the clearing. It crushes his heart to leave Castiel on the ground, but he has to. He'd heard Gabriel tell Sam about the stone, even if it didn't look like he heard anything in his grieving state.

Sneaking around the clearing, hidden by trees and bushes, he makes sure not to step on anything that would make any noise. He keeps watching the Kapre and the huge tree in the middle. The Kapre keeps looking towards the tree at some points when it is sure none of his opponents looks at him.

After awhile, Dean finally finds what he is looking for. There is a nest in the tree, but there are no birds. Not even one. None of the animals in the tree are even close to the nest, like they had been placed far out of reach on purpose.

Dean gets around to the other side of the clearing, to the other side of the tree, meaning he's out of sight of the Kapre.

He makes a run for it. He runs as fast as his feet can bare him, and jumps up to catch onto a branch of the tree, and climbs. When he's high enough in the tree, he starts making his way to the front where the nest is. He'd expected the animals to attack him, but when he's met by a cat on his way to the front, he find's it's scared stiff. It only stares at him, almost pleadingly. Dean ignores it and keeps moving.

When he finally reaches the nest, it's filled with eggs. All of them are white, and all of them are cold. He turns them all around in his hands, weighing them to make sure they're all eggs. They all weigh the same. He's about to give up, when he sees the tiniest black dot on one of the eggs. He looks one more time on all of them, and they all have it except for one. And now that he really looks at it, it's slightly whiter than the others.

A scream draws his attention. He looks down to see that Gabriel has been shot in the arm. The worse part however is that Sam is pointing the gun at Dean. The Kapre staring at him too.

Dean hides the white egg, and pushes the nest out and onto the ground. The Kapre looks shocked and hurries over to the nest, catching it just in time, but his gaze turns angry as he looks back up to Dean in the tree, and smashes the eggs in the nest.

"I'll smash it to bits if you even try to do anything!" Dean shouts at the giant. The Kapre takes a few steps back.

"What can I do for you, young man?" The dark voice of the Kapre sounds loud in the clearing.

Dean looks at the Kapre a bit more, before he climbs down from the tree. He glares the giant in the eyes, then looks over to his brother's who's standing by, waiting for the Kapre's orders. Gabriel is standing not far off, gripping the wound in his arm.

Dean slowly walks over to where Castiel is lying. "I only have one question. How did you get out of my posession?" The dark voice asks.

"I dunno. But it might have something to do with you making me murder him." Dean responds, pointing down at Castiel on the ground. "Bring him back to life." He adds.

The Kapre stares at him. "I am not able to do that."

"Then I will not hesitate to crush this." Dean takes the egg out from his pocket.

"Hold on!" The Kapre takes a step towards him, his hand stretched out towards the egg.

"I order you to bring Castiel back to life!" Dean shouts at the giant. It looks like it thinks it over for a moment, then nods.

The giant loincloth wearing man walks over and kneels by Castiel, placing one finger on the bullet wound in his chest. He lifts it up, and out comes the bullet. Other than that, nothing happens.

"I've done what I can. Now please give me my stone back" The Kapre stares at Dean, Sam pointing the gun at him now.

Dean's angry. There's no sign of life from Castiel.

"Well, go ahead! Shoot me! I'll destroy your fucking stone for not bringing Castiel back!" He shouts first at his brother, then the Kapre.

He tightens his grip around the egg-looking stone, aiming to crush it in his hand.

Nothing happens.

Dean stares at the stone in shock. It resembled an egg in so many ways, that he was sure it would be crushed in his hand if he clenched it. He looks at Gabriel then, hoping for an answer. He only gets a shrug in return. Then he remembers his brother with the gun.

He jumps to the ground just in time to dodge the bullet. He doesn't have time to think, as Sam keeps pointing his gun at him. Dean rolls to his feet, sprinting towards Sam. He'd been counting Sam's shots, and he would only have one bullet left at this point.

The one bullet he has left, is now travelling towards Dean at high speed. It hits him in his shoulder, making him stagger back a bit, but he ignores the pain as best as possible as he resumes his running. Sam pulls the trigger again, but nothing comes out. He looks confused at the gun, but then Dean's there. He grabs the gun, whispering an apology as he hits Sam in the back of his head with it. His brother collapses to the ground immediately.

The Kapre's enraged. While glaring at Dean, He makes the animals in the tree come down to the ground. They all look confused, but then the Kapre speaks. "I will free the one who kills these scum and retrieves my precious stone unharmed"

Both Gabriel and Dean look at each other, then at the animals. They are all staring at them, considering their best option. Looking down on Sam, Dean now greatly regret hitting him unconscious.

Luckily, Gabriel comes jogging to his side, helping him with Sam. They drag him between them, as they back off from the animals. Dean pulls out his gun, aiming at them. None of them are scared of it.

"Gabe, you think you can get Sam out of here?" Dean looks at him, then back at the animals.

"Hells yeah, I'm still strong!" as if to prove it, he grabbed onto Sam and hefted him over his shoulder. It looks hilarious to say the least. And then he's gone. The little man is fast!

Dean's shocked for a moment at the speed of the small man, but right now he has other things to worry about. Like a bunch of violent animals for instance.

The previously scared cat is now hissing at him, ears flat, the fur raised. It approaches him sideways, it's claws ready to strike.

One of the horses are closing in, it's whole body language screams violence.

A dog's barking at him, a cow is aiming it's hard scull towards him, a bear makes itself huge as it walks towards him on two legs.

He has to destroy the stone.

He looks down at the gun in his hand, and hits his head for being so stupid.

Dean tosses the stone far up into the air, regretting it when pain shoots through his entire body from his shoulder, but hastily pulls up his gun and shoots the Damn stone on it's way down.

It bursts into a million tiny pieces.

He hears the Kapre scream in anger and agony and turns just in time to see the giant burst into similar tiny pieces. The huge tree in the middle catches fire, and the animals turns into the humans they once were. Or so Dean thought.

Apparently some of them has been animals for so long, they don't even remember being so. And so, they charge at Dean. His gun gets knocked to the ground, and away from him, the humans pulling him down, poking their fingers into his wound, making him scream in pain.

Even if they're in the open woods, making most of the smoke from the burning tree flow freely to the sky above, some of the fumes still spread out over the ground. The humans, being so used to the animal senses, realises they're in great danger, and leaves Dean alone as they run for the woods, away from the fumes.

Dean however isn't that lucky, He lays on the ground, writhing in pain for a few moments until he manages to get up. He knows he's in danger of chocking on the fumes, but he has to get Castiel. He tries covering his mouth as he stumbles over to where Castiel still lays motionless.

Dean tears off his T-shirt and puts it over Castiel's mouth and nose, protecting him from breathing in the fumes, refusing to believe he's dead. He lifts him up, and walks them out of there. It hurts his shoulder damn much, but he doesn't care.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean doesn't know how far or for how long he's walked, but now, his shoulder hurts too much to bare, and he's having trouble breathing after coughing all the way. He falls to his knees, still careful not to do any damage to Castiel, as he lays him down carefully. He gets a coughing fit worse than he's had before, and he lays down beside Castiel, trying to calm down and breathe.

After a while of breathing exercises, he finally manages to breathe somewhat properly. The pain and the coughing has exhausted him however, and so he's slowly slipping away into sleep.

He looks over at Castiel's face. His T-shirt has slipped down, laying beside him on the ground. His head had lolled over to the side, letting Dean see his whole pale face. He can feel tears prickling in his eyes, and he closes them, turning his face away. He falls asleep, the tears still in the corners of his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean jolts awake at a gasping sound beside him. Eyes wide, he turns over to look at Castiel.

He's alive.

Castiel is alive!

The other man is in a halfway sitting position, his eyes as wide as they possibly can be, breathing hard as if he'd been forced to hold his breath for way too long. He looks down at his body, then he touches his chest in awe.

Dean can't keep his tears back now. He's so happy, and not to mention relieved that his Castiel is back. Maybe the Kapre did what he asked after all.

Dean is still exhausted though, and he feels himself slipping away again, but not before seeing the terrified expression Castiel has on his face when he sees Dean beside him. And feeling the heartache as Castiel scuttles away from him. Dean's tears fall, and his eyes shuts as he drifts off to sleep again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castiel's heart is racing as he sees Dean by his side. He remembers seeing Dean shoot him. But he also remembers seeing that terrible shine in his eyes that the Kapre had, and he'd known it wasn't really Dean who shot him. But it still hurt, knowing it's your loved one killing you. Killing. How is he alive right now? and where are Sam and Gabriel? And the Kapre?

He looks around frantically, but sees no one. They are all alone in a fairly dense part of the forest. He looks down to Dean again, realizing he's passed out, fresh tears fallen down his cheek, some still stuck by the bridge of his nose, and the wound in his shoulder looking awfully sore. Why is his chest bare?

Castiel finds his T-shirt on the ground, he picks it up, and out of curiosity he smells it.

It smells like fire and smoke.

So that's why.

He looks back at his lover, crawling closer to the man. He strokes his cheek, then moves his attention to the wound in his shoulder. It looks like a bullet wound, and it's been there for a while without being attended to. Without their first aid kit, Castiel can't do much. He tears Dean's T-shirt into smaller pieces, wraps it as good as possible around the man's shoulder, and ties it down good.

He drags them both over to a tree and arranges Dean into a somewhat comfortable position against himself. He sits against the tree, letting Dean rest against his chest in a sideways position, Castiel's leg supporting his back, the other slung over Dean's legs. He wraps his arms around him and rests his head on Dean's. He's nervous that Dean might not be himself, but he tries to ignore it.

They sit like that for a long time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam awakes with a terrible headache and groans. "Dean.. what happened?" he asks.

"Your brother hit you with your own gun. You kinda deserved it for shooting him though."

That's not Dean. Sam sits up abruptly, making himself dizzy. He ignores it and looks around to find Gabriel watching him.

"So, sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up?" Gabriel grins.

"Where's Dean?!" he groans again at the pain in his head, reaching up to feel the bump in the back of his head.

"He was still in the clearing the last time I saw him." Gabriel shrugs.

"You left my brother alone with the damn Kapre?! We need to get back there!" Sam gets up from the ground. Gabriel, knowing there's no point in arguing about it, shows him the way back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the hell happened here...?" Sam breaths as they walk around the clearing. The Tree has burned to the ground, and there's signs of a struggle, but there's no bodies anywhere. Even Castiel's body is gone. "Dean must have won, and carried Castiel away..." he adds when he can't see him.

They walk over to where he'd been laying, finding the faintest traces of the two of them moving.

They follow the traces.

It only takes a little while until they finally find them. But it's not how they pictured it. It's the exact opposite of how they pictured it. Instead of Dean sitting on the ground, holding Cas close, it's Cas who's holding him close. Although it looks as if Dean's the one who arranged their bodies like that, giving that Castiel's dead, and his arms and legs are laying limp around Dean. However, Dean is also way too motionless and pale, and the bandage around his shoulder seems wrong somehow. It's tied in a position impossible for Dean to have made it.

Sam and Gabriel suck in a breath at the same time, holding it as they approach the two.

There's a movement, but it's not the movement they expected.

Castiel tightens his grip, and lifts his head, looking at Sam and Gabriel.

They both let their breaths out at the same time, whispering "Castiel" as they look into the impossibly blue orbs.

Castiel smiles a faint smile at them, then looks down at Dean who's become more pale since he'd wrapped his wound.

"We need to get out of here, and patch him up." He rasps. It's his first time talking in quite some time.

Sam lets out a huff of a laugh and agrees. Both he and Gabriel helps Castiel with Dean, and they get out of the forest as fast as possible with their injuries.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam rents them two rooms at a different motel than the one they'd stayed in earlier, they'd stolen the covers and pillows from their room after all. They carry Dean inside and places him carefully on the bed. Castiel sits down on the other bed to catch his breath. Although there's not really a wound in his chest anymore, it still hurts like hell and it's somewhat hard to breathe at times because of the pain. His leg still hurts from the other bullet wound, and he has bruises around his neck after being strangled by the rope he'd been tied up with as a horse.

Sam immediately starts cutting off the fabric around Dean's wound, finding the tweezers they had in case they ever got shot. He starts poking in Dean's wound, and triumphantly pulls the bullet out. He pours alcohol into the wound, trying to disinfect it, but doesn't sew it shut, as Dean's still out of it. It could get worse if Dean awoke while he was sewing and jerked out of his grasp or something.

Being done with Dean for the moment, he moves on to Gabriel. Even if the Angel had tried to cover it up, Sam realized he was hurt. "Show me your wound Gabe."

Gabriel just glares at him. He gives up soon though, looking at those puppy eyes won't ever let you stay mad or anything for too long.

He rolls up his sleeve, showing him the bullet wound in his bicep. Sam frowns and sticks his tweezers into the wound. Gabriel whimpers at the feeling, but stays still. When the bullet is out, Sam pours alcohol on the wound, and sews it shut.

"I'm sorry I shot you. I guess I'm to blame for the both of you being shot..." Sam sighs and sit down in a chair beside Gabriel.

"No worries! You got possessed by the giant. Not your fault Sammy!" Gabriel grins.

"It's Sam!" Sam frowns at the nickname. Only Dean is ever allowed to call him that occasionally, and even he's not allowed to, most times.

"Hey, Cas... are you feeling alright?" Sam looks at Castiel. Although he's in pain, he actually feel ok.

"Yes, Sam, thank you for asking. It's good to be in human form again. It was tiring not being able to talk." Castiel smiles a bit.

"Let me look at your chest?" Sam gets up from the chair and walks over to Castiel. Cas nods, pulling his shirt up. He has a nasty bruise spreading all over his chest. "Is it ok if I touch? I just need to see if anything's broken." Sam adds. Again, Castiel nods. He straightens his back and braces for the pain he know will come from the touch.

Sam feels over the bruise, pressing harder some places. Luckily, nothing seems broken, and he stands back up, smiling down at Castiel. "Looks like it's just a very nasty bruise." Sam grins. "It's good to have you back, man!" He bends down and hugs Castiel careful not to hurt him.

"Thank you Sam, it is good to be back." Castiel replies with a smile, hugging Sam back.

A groan from the other bed draws everyone's attention.

Dean frowns and then finally awakes.

"Dean!" Sam hurries over to him. "Finally! Hey, man, I need to stitch your wound, ok?"

"Ughh.. Couldn't you've done so while I was out?!" Dean groans again.

"You know as well as I do that's not a good idea." Sam chuckles. He grabs the needle, burns it and pours alcohol over it, and stitches the wound shut. "There. All done." Sam smiles. He then clears his throat. "I guess you two have a lot to talk about. Me and Gabe'll retreat to the other room." Before Gabriel have time to protest, he's dragged out the door by Sam.

Dean turns to look at Cas then. His facial expression turning sad the moment he sees him. "I guess you don't want anything to do with me after everything that's happened lately." He mumbles and turns away.

"I was quite frustrated and hurt at first. My own lover not recognizing me, no matter how many hints I tried giving. And then he goes off breaking his promise to me, by getting drunk and getting into a fight at the bar, resulting in almost getting shot by the men he fought with. And even after taking a bullet for him, and carrying him home, he still didn't trust me. But I realized after being tied up for a while, that he only does it to try to protect himself, just in case it would turn out that I wasn't his lover after all." Castiel pauses to take a few steady breaths. It hurts to talk. "But it wasn't my lover that pulled the trigger. Yes it was his body, but not his mind." Castiel finishes.

Dean turns around, and sits up, looking at Castiel. They both stay silent for a while, just looking into each other's eyes.

"I love you." Castiel breaks the silence. Dean jumps out of his bed, approaching Castiel. He stands in front of him, staring down at him for a few moments, before bringing his hands up to cup his face, bending down to kiss him. Castiel moans into the kiss, partly because of the pain and partly because he's missed this so much.

Dean pulls back just slightly. "I've missed you so damn much! I love you, Cas. More than anything." Dean whispers. He pulls him back in for another kiss.

"Mph!" Castiel screws his eyes shut. Dean pulls away, looking worried at Castiel.

"What's wrong Cas?" he looks him over, but he can't see more than the dried up blood from the wound he know is gone.

"My chest still hurts" Castiel clarified, and pulls his shirt up to show Dean the bruise. Dean sucks in a breath at the sight.

"I'm so sorry..." he breathes.

"No, Dean, it is ok. I just need to rest for a bit and I will be fine." Castiel smiles reassuringly. "But I do wonder. How am I alive?" He tilts his head in question.

"I found the Kapre's stone and ordered him to bring you back. But you didn't wake up, so I thought it lied to me, and I destroyed the stone, making him explode into tiny bits, and making his tree burn down... You didn't wake up until at least half an hour later..." Dean trails off, remembering with horror how cold and lifeless Castiel had been.

"Thank you, Dean." Castiel cupped his cheek. "Now, will you perhaps help me get rid of these clothes, and join me in bed?" He grins at Dean.

Mirroring Castiel's grin, Dean is happy to oblige. It takes a while to get their clothes off, since both of them are injured, but they are soon tangled in each others limbs under the covers. They kiss lazily for a long time, just enjoying each others taste and warmth.

Dean pulls away a little bit. "How did the barn catch fire?" he wonders out loud.

"I do not know exactly, but I heard someone outside, mumbling something about glowing eyes and a loincloth. Then the fire started from the outside. I imagine it was one of the Kapre's many victims." Castiel murmurs, looking into Dean's beautifully green eyes.

"I guess that explains the burnt body we found." Dean replies, leaning in to kiss Cas again. "Let's not repeat this, ok?" Dean then says, smiling wryly.

"Let us not." Castiel agrees, pecking Dean's lips, before burrowing his head in Dean's shoulder.

Dean sighs contently, and they both fall asleep like that.


End file.
